This invention relates generally to medical devices and more particularly to flexible, power-driven catheters for destroying stones or other hard bodies located within the body of a living being.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,558 entitled "Catheter Based Surgical Methods and Apparatus Therefor", assigned to the same assignee as this invention, there is disclosed and claimed a catheter for effecting the destruction of a stone or other hard body, e.g., a body containing calcium, located within a living being.
While the catheter disclosed in that application is suitable for its intended purposes to disintegrate or otherwise destroy some stones or other hard bodies, it may nevertheless leave something to be desired from the standpoint of destroying stones which are not held within a duct or lumen in the body.